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Advances
in Corporate
Branding
Edited by
JOHN M.T. BALMER,
SHAUN M. POWELL,
JOACHIM KERNSTOCK &
TIM OLIVER BREXENDORF
jo ur nal of brand manag ement:

advanced collections
Journal of Brand Management:
Advanced Collections
Series Editors
Tim Oliver Brexendorf
Henkel Center for Consumer Goods
WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management
Duesseldorf, Germany
Joachim Kernstock
Center of Competence for Brand Management
St. Gallen, Switzerland
Shaun M. Powell
Faculty of Business
University of Wollongong
New South Wales, Australia
The Journal of Brand Management (JBM) has established
itself as a leading journal in the field. Published by Palgrave
it encompasses contributions from both academics and
practitioners and covers topics such as brand strategy, brand
measurement, luxury branding, brand architecture, corporate
branding and research methods to name a few. The Journal
of Brand Management: Advanced Collections series provides
definitive and comprehensive coverage of broad subject areas.
Books in the series are ideally used on PhD programmes or by
upper level students looking for rigorous academic material
on a popular subject area, and for scholars and discerning
practitioners, acting as ‘advanced introductions.’
Organised thematically the series covers historically popular
topics along with new and burgeoning areas that the
journal has been instrumental in developing, showcasing the
incremental and substantial contributions that the journal
has provided. Each book is guest edited by a leading figure in
the field alongside the Journal Editors who will provide a new
leading article that will cover the current state of research in
the specific area.
More information about this series at:

http://www.springer.com/series/15099
Advances in Corporate
Branding
Edited by
John M. T. Balmer
Brunel University London, UK
Shaun M. Powell
University of Wollongong, Australia
Joachim Kernstock
Center of Competence for Brand Management, Switzerland
and
Tim Oliver Brexendorf

WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, Germany
Editors
John M. T. Balmer Shaun M. Powell
Brunel University London University of Wollongong
United Kingdom Australia
Joachim Kernstock Tim Oliver Brexendorf

Centre of Competence for WHU – Otto Beisheim School of
Brand Management Management
Switzerland Germany
Journal of Brand Management: Advanced Collections

ISBN 978–1–352–00007–8 ISBN 978–1–352–00008–5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781352000085
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017
The author(s) has/have asserted their right(s) to be identified as the author(s)
of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed
by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned,
specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation,
broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and
transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation,
computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or
hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service
marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific
statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and
regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice
and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date
of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a
warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or
for any errors or omissions that may have been made.
Cover illustration: © Mmdi/Getty
Printed on acid-free paper
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature
The registered company is Macmillan Publishers Ltd. London
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
About the Editors viii
List of Tables and Figures xi
1 Introduction: Current State and Future

Directions for Research on Corporate Brand
Management 1
John M.T. Balmer, Shaun M. Powell, Joachim Kernstock
and Tim Oliver Brexendorf
2 Explicating Corporate Brands and Their Management:
Reflections and Directions from 1995 22
John M.T. Balmer
3 The Importance of Corporate Brand Personality Traits
to a Successful 21st Century Business 47
Kevin Lane Keller and Keith Richey
4 Managing the Franchised Brand: The Franchisees’
Perspective 59
Leyland Pitt, Julie Napoli and Rian Van Der Merwe
5 Alliance Brands: Building Corporate Brands through
Strategic Alliances? 72
Hong-Wei He and John M.T. Balmer
6 The Role of Internal Branding in the Delivery of
Employee Brand Promise 91
Khanyapuss Punjaisri and Alan Wilson
7 An Integrated Approach to Corporate Branding 109
Nicholas Ind
8 Finding Sources of Brand Value: Developing a
Stakeholder Model of Brand Equity 119
Richard Jones
v
vi Contents
9 The Organic View of the Brand: A Brand Value

Co-creation Model 148
Oriol Iglesias, Nicholas Ind and Manuel Alfaro
10 Corporate Brand Orientation: What Is It? What of It? 175
John M.T. Balmer
Index 203
Acknowledgements
The editors are appreciative of the research and scholarship of the

authors whose articles have been selected for this anthology. We also
acknowledge the contributions of the reviewers of these articles along
with the current and former members of the editorial board, and for-
mer/emeritus Editors-in-Chief of the Journal of Brand Management (JBM).
We also thank JBM publishing editors and editorial support and produc-
tion teams. Finally we wish to thank Liz Barlow (Senior Commissioning
Editor) and Maddie Holder (Assistant Editor) at Palgrave Macmillan
(Business and Management Scholarly & Reference Division) for their
encouragement and support, without which the initial development of
the advanced collection series would not have been possible.
vii
About the Editors
John M. T. Balmer is Professor of Corporate Marketing at Brunel

Business School in London and quondam Professor of Corporate Brand/
Identity Management at Bradford School of Management. He is com-
monly regarded as the “Father” of the corporate brand concept; the
corporate marketing notion; and the corporate heritage identity/
corporate heritage marketing and monarchical marketing areas. He also
co-developed the corporate heritage notion. Since the early 1990s, he
has been a leading proponent of the strategic importance of corporate
identity, corporate brands, and corporate marketing and has pub-
lished numerous articles in the above areas in leading journals such as
California Management Review, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of
Business Ethics, Long Range Planning, British Journal of Management, Journal
of Business Research, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Marketing
Management, Journal of General Management. Since the early 1990s, John
has served as a guest editor/joint guest editor of around 30 special edi-
tions of academic journals. After his first degree at Reading University
and postgraduate studies at Durham University, he completed his PhD
in corporate identity management at Strathclyde University Business
School and, within three years, was appointed as Professor of Corporate
Identity at Bradford University School of Management where he subse-
quently was accorded the title of Professor of Corporate Brand/Identity
Management in recognition of his pioneering scholarship in both areas.
In 2007, he joined the faculty at Brunel University Business School,
London, as Professor of Corporate Marketing. All three (full) professorial
appointments are the first of their kind. He is the founder, chairman,
and conference organiser of the International Corporate Identity Group
(ICIG) – www.icig.org.uk – dating back to 1994 and in an analogous
fashion he is the founder, chairman, and conference organiser of the
International Corporate Heritage Symposium which was founded in
2001. He serves as Chairman of the Senior Consulting Editorial Board
for the Journal of Brand Management and sits on the Senior Advisory
Board of the Journal of Product and Brand Management.
Shaun M. Powell is Senior Lecturer in Marketing in the Faculty of

Business at the University of Wollongong in Australia and Co-Editor-in-
Chief of the Journal of Brand Management. Following a period in industry
viii
About the Editors ix
Shaun has worked in the higher education sector in Australia, UK and

Asia, undertaking various roles including Associate Head of School,
Academic Director and Postgraduate Course Coordinator. He undertook
his PhD in the Business School at the University of Strathclyde and
his research is primarily focused upon Corporate Brand Management
and Communications. Shaun has published via various books and
international journals such as European Journal of Marketing; Journal
of Business Ethics; Journal of Brand Management; Journal of Consumer
Marketing; Corporate Communications: An International Journal; Qualitative
Market Research: An International Journal; Young Consumers. He is also a
long-term member of the International Corporate Identity Group (ICIG).
Past or present Professional Memberships include: American Marketing
Association – Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) – Marketing Science
Institute – Academy of Marketing (UK) – Australian Marketing Institute
(AMI) – International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) –
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy UK (FHEA).
Joachim Kernstock is Head of the Center of Competence for Brand

Management (KMSG) and Lecturer in Marketing at the University of
St. Gallen, Switzerland. He is an experienced corporate brand strategy
advisor and works with leading Swiss and European corporates as well
as SMEs. He has published leading publications about corporate brand
management and brand behaviour in Germany and internationally
referred journals. Before his current engagement he was responsible
for the Lufthansa corporate marketing and brand portfolio. He is
also Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Brand Management. His main
research topics are brand management, in particular corporate brand
management and behavioural branding. He co-edited two special issues
of the Journal of Brand Management and also several books, including
Corporate Brand Management which are now on their third editions.
Tim Oliver Brexendorf is Professor of Marketing and Director of the

Henkel Center for Consumer Goods (HCCG) at WHU – Otto Beisheim
School of Management, Germany. He is also Co-Editor-in-Chief of the
Journal of Brand Management. In addition, he is a permanent visiting
researcher at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, USA and
was a guest professor (Erasmus) at ESADE Business School, Spain. He
received his PhD from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. Before
his career in academia, he worked for several international retailers. He is
the author of an edited book on brand management. His main research
topics are consumer goods marketing, brand management – in particular
brand strategy, brand positioning, behavioural branding, product
x About the Editors
(innovation) management – especially product lines product design,

and product packaging, and manufacturer – retailer relationships. He
was a co-guest editor (together with Barry Bayus and Kevin Lane Keller)
of a special section on “brand and innovation interdependencies” in
the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. He further co-edited two
past special issues of the Journal of Brand Management. His works have
appeared in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of
Business Research, Journal of Brand Management, Journal of Product and
Brand Management, Corporate Reputation Review, Journal of Business-to-
Business Marketing, among others.
List of Tables and Figures
Tables
2.1 A comparison between product and corporate brands 36

2.2 The new corporate branding architecture typology 40
4.1 Descriptive statistics and alpha coefficient for the brand
report card 64
4.2 Factor analysis of the brand report card scale 66
4.3 Multiple regression – dimensions on overall perceptions
of brand management versus competitors 67
4.4 Multiple regression – dimensions on overall perceptions
of franchise value compared to alternatives 68
5.1 Oneworld’s vision 79
6.1 Explanation of the 6Cs of corporate marketing mix 93
6.2 Reliability coefficients (Cronbach alpha) for scales used
in the research 98
6.3 Mediator effects of brand identification on the internal
communications – employees’ brand performance
relationship 99
6.4 Mediator effects of brand commitment on the internal
relationship 100
6.5 Mediator effects of brand loyalty on the internal
relationship 100
6.6 Mediator effects of brand identification on the
training – employees’ brand performance relationship 101
6.7 Mediator effects of brand commitment on the
6.8 Mediator effects of brand loyalty on the
6.9 Internal communication and training influence employees’
brand performance 103
xi
xii List of Tables and Figures
9.1 In-depth interview guide (subjects covered) 156

10.1 The brand orientation canon in context 182
10.2 Brand orientation: symptomatic schools of thought –
indicative sources and explanations 183
10.3 Definitions and explanation of brand orientation,
corporate brands, corporate marketing and corporate
brand identification 186
10.4 Corporate brands and brand orientation: Comparing
the formative, symptomatic literature of both domains 190
10.5 Comparing the work of Evans et al. (2012) vis-à-vis brand
orientation with the work of Balmer (2012a) relating to
corporate brands 191
Figures
2.1 Balmer’s AC3ID Test of Corporate Brand ManagementTM 34

3.1 Corporate personality traits 50
3.2 Some marketing trade-offs 52
5.1 The current status of the oneworld brand 82
5.2 The hypothetical status of a strong oneworld brand in
the future 84
6.1 Six elements of Balmer’s corporate marketing mix 92
6.2 Coordination of HR and marketing to influence brand
promise delivery 104
7.1 An integrated approach to communications 114
8.1 Daisy-wheel model of brand equities 129
8.2 The process of identifying stakeholder value relations 130
8.3 Identifying key stakeholder expectations 135
8.4 The stakeholder – brand value model 138
9.1 Illustration of concepts-codes 157
9.2 Illustration of emerging subcategories and categories 157
9.3 The conversational space 158
9.4 The organic view of the brand 159
10.1 Brand orientation: symptomatic schools of thought 183
List of Tables and Figures xiii
10.2 The quadripartite bases of corporate brand orientation:

brand orientation, corporate brand focus and a corporate
marketing logic 184
10.3 Senior management mindfulness vis-à-vis the corporate brand
in providing the organisation with a central spine, standard
and thrust – ‘Managerial Corporate Brand Orientation’ 195
10.4 Management roles and responsibilities vis-à-vis corporate
brand orientation encouraging 196
1
Introduction: Current State and
Future Directions for Research on
Corporate Brand Management
John M.T. Balmer, Shaun M. Powell, Joachim Kernstock
and Tim Oliver Brexendorf
1.1 Corporate brands in context
1.1.1 Preamble
In this opening section, entitled “Corporate brands in context,” the
nature of corporate brands and the fundamentals of corporate brand
management are succinctly delineated.
This section is principally informed by the foundational literature
relating to corporate brands and is primarily informed by Balmer’s
scholarship on the territory. As such, this introductory segment details
the nature, management, and supra-level approaches (vis-à-vis cor-
porate marketing and identity-based views of the firm approaches).
As such, this represents the orthodox marketing approach to the
domain which is somewhat different from the heterodox co-creation
perspective which will be discussed later in this chapter. The approach
adopted in this section aims to guide the novice to the corporate brand
field by addressing a number of fundamental questions associated with
corporate brands and their management.
1.1.2 Why have corporate brands come of age?

Today, the widespread effusion of the strategic significance and worth
of corporate brands belie the fact that the corporate brand notion is a
comparatively recent one. Even after its formal introduction (Balmer,
1995) the corporate brand idea was widely disregarded by scholars
and practitioners for many years. For this reason, the historiography of
the field is often misunderstood with the references of some academic
articles giving the impression that it was introduced by scholars of
1
2 John M.T. Balmer et al.
organisational behaviour (and not marketing) in the early 2000s: see

Balmer (2010a).
In part, this book challenges this dubious/contentious narrative which
disregards the pre-2001 literature; marginalises the marketing approach
to the territory; and sidelines the contributions made by British schol-
ars and practitioners. As such, the publication of this compendium on
corporate brands is both felicitous and propitious coming as it does in
the wake of the twentieth anniversary of the formal introduction of the
corporate brand notion in 1995 (Balmer, 1995).
Whereas in the mid-1990s the corporate brand notion was seen as
a somewhat avant-garde, outlandish, if not decidedly revolutionary
notion, through the advocacy of Balmer (1995, 2001a) and via the
writing of marketing consultants such as Nicholas Ind (1997, 1998),
the corporate brand idea gradually entered mainstream marketing and
management thought. Seemingly, it first took hold in the UK, then
spread to Continental Europe and to Commonwealth nations, and
finally was recognised in North America. Presciently, Balmer (1995,
1998) foretold that corporate brands would emerge as an important
and mainstream concern: it is patently obvious that his prophecy has
come to fruition.
We should not, perhaps, be surprised how, today, the corporate brand
notion is widely viewed as a vital, ubiquitous, and moreover, as a global,
strategic imperative. Unquestionably, it is a mainstream concern for
corporate marketing scholars. Uncontestably, too, the corporate brand
notion has a firm hold within the senior management vernacular and
mind-set.
Arguably, the notion that organisations, whether large or small, can
be brand-like is on reflection, quite an ancient one. As John Balmer
explains in his lectures, the very roots of the brand notion are asso-
ciated with entities/organisations rather than with products. Thus
in ancient China, Persia, and Rome family-owned businesses (bak-
ers, potters, wine-merchants) would, via their names and marques,
become associated with levels of quality and thus these marks and
names were not only identifiers but were, moreover, marques of assur-
ance. The product brand notion took hold much later on and came to
prominence in the aftermaths of both the first industrial revolution
in Britain and the second in the USA. As Balmer often muses, some
of the world’s oldest greatest brands are corporate brands viz: the
Catholic Church, the British monarchy; Oxford University are cases
in point.
Current and Future Research on Corporate Brand Management 3
As this book attests, many academic articles have been written on the
area and the Journal of Brand Management ( JBM) has published notable,
cornerstone, articles on the field.
Today, it is common for postgraduate students to take PhDs in
corporate brand management; for master’s students to pursue degrees
on corporate brand/corporate marketing management and to take elec-
tives on corporate brand theory and practice as part of MSc degrees in
marketing; and for final year undergraduates to read corporate branding
as part of their bachelor’s degrees. Academics are appointed to chairs,
readerships, and lectureships in corporate brand management (John
M.T. Balmer was appointed to the first chair in corporate brand manage-
ment in the early 2000s at Bradford University School of Management).
For their part, the corporate brand concept has become a facet of the
CEO and senior management strategic deliberations and company
reports are peppered with references to the corporate brand. Notably,
too, there is a whole field of consultancy devoted to the area. There can
be few organisations that, in recent years, have not retained a corporate
brand consultant.
1.1.3 When was the corporate brand notion formally

introduced and what was said?
Formally introduced by Balmer (1995), in his Journal of General
Management (JGM) “Corporate branding and Connoisseurship” article (to
reiterate an earlier point) it took another 10 years or so before the con-
cept became a mainstream academic, management, and consultancy
concern.
In this cornerstone article, Balmer (1995) noted the importance of
corporate brands and, moreover, advanced the idea that corporate
brand management was a senior management imperative. Moreover,
in this article he articulated some of the key fundamentals and
differentials of corporate brands. Importantly and significantly, he
asserted that:
• corporate identity (an organisation’s distinctive and differentiating

attributes) provided the foundations for a corporate brand;
• a corporate brand required organisation-wide commitment from
employees;
• corporate brand required not only a customer but, moreover, a stake-
holder focus;
• corporate brand management was multidisciplinary in scope; and

• corporate brand management warranted ongoing responsibility from
senior managers – especially the CEO.
Other notable scholars evident during this period include Ind (1997)
and Hatch & Schultz (2001). Ind (1997) noted a corporate brand is
far more than a name or logo but was concerned with an organisa-
tion’s corporate values. Hatch & Shultz (2001) asserted that a corporate
brand was fundamentally concerned with mission, culture, and image.
Curiously, however, the importance of the corporate brand “promise”;
the significance of corporate identity and, the foundational marketing
articles on corporate brands are studiously ignored.
1.1.4 What is the corporate brand covenant?

The corporate brand covenant is an important – arguably critical –
dimension of the corporate brand notion. In essence, a corporate brand
represents a powerful covenant (an informal contract often having a
religious like quality akin to religious covenant) between a firm and its
stakeholders (Balmer & Gray, 2003). The covenant is based on custom-
ers’ and other stakeholders’ expectations associated with the corporate
brand name and or marque. A corporate brand covenant represents a
quasi bi-lateral contract between the corporate brand and stakehold-
ers. Whilst this covenant is not legally binding it can all the same be
powerful and a failure to live up to the covenant can be damaging for
organisations associated with corporate brand.
1.1.5 Why are corporate brand and corporate identity

bi-lateral relationships essential?
According to Balmer (1995, 2001a, 2008, 2012a, 2012b) and Balmer
& Gray (2003) understanding, the bi-lateral relationships between cor-
porate identities and corporate brands is fundamental to the corporate
brand notion. Six years after the formal introduction of the corporate
brand notion (Balmer, 1995) Balmer re-emphasised in his second Journal
of General Management article “The three virtues and seven deadly sins
of corporate brand management” the importance of corporate identity
apropos the corporate brand. He stated:
A corporate brand involves the conscious decision by senior man-
agement to distil and make known the attributes of the organisation’s
identity in the form of a clearly defined branding proposition (Balmer,
2001a; p. 281).
For instance, it is a corporate identity which informs a corporate

brand. When a corporate brand is established a corporate identity is
critical since it is the corporate identity (an organisation’s distinctive
and differentiated attributes, behaviours, and performances) which
delivers the corporate brand covenant (Balmer, 2012a).
The above might be usefully elaborated on further. According to
Balmer (2008) a corporate brand needs to be viewed as a distinct
identity type. Thus, although derived from a corporate identity, once
established, a corporate brand is separable and divisible from the
originator corporate identity (Balmer, 2008). As Balmer (2012a) noted, a
corporate brand covenant can be bought, sold, or borrowed. Invariably
only the marque and name is bought, sold, or borrowed: BMW only
bought the Rolls Royce car brand but did not acquire the factory or
the staff. Thus, a corporate brand is a marque of assurance but the
realisation of this assurance is dependent on an organisation’s corporate
identity (what a corporate makes, does, and how it behaves) delivering
the brand promise (Balmer, 2012a, 2012b). The real value of a corporate
brand is derived from its emotional ownership on the part of customers
and other stakeholders in contrast to legal ownership which is vested in
the corporation (Balmer, 2012a, 2012b).
1.1.6 In what ways do corporate brand differ

from product brands?
One significant way of comprehending the importance of corporate
brands/corporate brand management is to consider how these differ
from traditional, product-focused, brand management. These dif-
ferences were initially detailed in Balmer (2001a) and were further
expanded in Balmer and Gray (2003). They can be delineated as
follows:
• Whereas a brand manager has responsibility for a product brand, a

corporate brand manager is the Chief Executive.
• Whereas the functional responsibility for product brands falls within
the remit of the marketing directorate, the functional responsibility for
corporate brands covers most/all departments.
• Whereas general responsibility for product brands resides among
marketing personnel, general responsibility for corporate brands resides
with all personnel.
• Whereas the disciplinary roots for product brands is marketing, a
corporate brand has multidisciplinary roots.
• Whereas a product brand can be formed over a short period (short

gestation), a corporate brand is formed over a medium to long period (long
gestation).
• Whereas a product brand has primarily a customer focus, a corporate
brand has a stakeholder focus.
• Whereas a product brand’s values are mainly contrived, a corporate
brand values need to be real (“authentic”).
• Whereas a product brand is primarily known via the marketing com-
munications mix, the corporate brand is known via the total corporate
communications mix (primary communications – performance of products
and services and organisational policies; secondary communications –
controlled communications such as corporate brand advertising and cor-
porate brand PR; tertiary communications – the effect of word of mouth,
media commentary; and, today, discourses on the web and associated
Internet and digital channels).
1.1.7 Taking account of a corporate marketing philosophy, what

is corporate brand alignment and why is it important?
The corporate brand notion is an integral part of a corporate marketing
philosophy (Balmer 1998, 2009, 2011; Balmer & Greyser, 2006). The
corporate marketing philosophy notes that organisations and also their
attendant brands (corporate brands) – and not just products and services
as per traditional marketing – can be highly powerful and meaningful
vehicles for bi-lateral company – customer/stakeholder relationships.
Unlike traditional marketing it takes account of the omni-temporal
dimension (past, present, and future) of the organisation and in par-
ticular multi-generational company–stakeholder relationships; accords
importance to corporate social responsibility; and is underpinned by a
suite of critically important corporate-level constructs such as corporate
identity, corporate brand, corporate communication, corporate image,
and corporate reputation.
Significantly, the corporate brand alignment approach is, in part,
informed by the above corporate marketing perspective and also the
identity-based views of the firm perspective (Balmer, 2008). According
to the corporate brand alignment methodology (apropos the ACID test
of corporate brand management), the corporate brand covenant acts
as a dynamic cornerstone and therefore other identities should be in
meaningful alignment with it. These other identities being an organisa-
tion’s corporate identity (actual identity); corporate reputation (con-
ceived identity); senior management vision (desired identity); corporate
strategy (ideal identity); corporate communications (communicated

identity) and an organisation’s culture (cultural identity). For the origi-
nal AC3ID test of corporate brand management of Balmer (which did
not include cultural identity) see Balmer & Greyser (2003, p. 251). For
the latest version of the AC4ID test of corporate brand management see
Balmer (2012a, 2012b).
1.1.8 What is corporate brand orientation and how

does it differ from brand orientation?
Of note, too, is the corporate brand orientation perspective. Formally
introduced in 2013, the corporate brand orientation notion (Balmer,
2013) marshalled insights from the general brand orientation notion
(Urde, 1999; Urde et al., 2013). The brand orientation concept which
accords importance to brands per se rather than, specifically, to corpo-
rate brands: thus the need for the corporate brand orientation doctrine.
As such, corporate brand orientation recognises and accords a cen-
tral role to corporate brands to institutions and to organisational life.
Building on and adapting insights from the brand orientation canon
and applying the aforementioned to corporate brands, a corporate
brand orientation means corporate brands are key focus of corpo-
rate strategy; inform corporate culture; and require senior managers
to accept the theory and practices of corporate brand management
(Balmer, 2013). Significantly, Baumgarth (2010) noted the significance
of the brand orientation notion in B2B contexts.
1.1.9 What are the imperatives of corporate brand management?

Custodianship, credibility, and calibration can be considered as three
imperatives underpinning the management of corporate brands (Balmer,
2012a) which can be explained as follows:
1. The corporate brand custodianship imperative: the CEO and senior

managers need to ensure the corporate brand maintenance and stew-
ardship is their (a senior management) concern.
2. The corporate brand credibility imperative: it is the task of senior
managers to ensure the corporate brand covenant (promise) is bona
fide (credible).
3. The corporate brand calibration imperative: it is the task of senior
managers to ensure the corporate brand covenant is meaningfully
and dynamically calibrated (aligned) with the identities forming the
corporate brand constellation (see the ACID test of corporate brand
management discussed earlier).
1.2 Current state of research in corporate

brand management
As this anthology partially documents, there has been an explosion of

interest in the branding of organisations since the 1990s, as well as an
increased importance bestowed to corporate brands by senior managers
in industry and from strategy and marketing/branding consultancies.
Universities have also pioneered innovative MBA/MSc electives or entire
MSc courses in these areas as noted a decade ago by Powell et al. (2007).
For instance, amongst others the Brunel Business School (UK), Bradford
School of Management (UK), University of Essex (UK), University of St.
Gallen (Switzerland), and University of Wollongong (Australia), cur-
rently represent some of the leading centres of learning in the area.
In the preceding section, it was noted how much of the pioneering
work on the field dates back to the mid-1990s (for a further discussion
of this point see Balmer, Brexendorf, & Kernstock (2013)) and articles
on corporate brand management can be found in leading journals on
strategic management, marketing, and communications, including
California Management Review, Harvard Business Review, European Journal
of Marketing, International Studies of Management and Organization,
Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Management Decision,
The International Journal of Bank Marketing, Corporate Reputation Review,
and last but not least the JBM.
Significantly, articles relating to corporate brand management rank
among the most downloaded in the JBM to date (Powell, 2014).
We note some of the characteristics of the corporate brand canon
below:
1.2.1 Whilst the corporate branding literature is broad in scope it

sometimes lacks clarity
For instance, some authors – along with some managers and some
consultants – regard corporate identity and corporate brand as analo-
gous terms, while many others fail to make a distinction between
product brands and corporate brands. This collection helps to re-direct
and re-focus on corporate brand management, what it is, what it is
really about, and what it is for.
1.2.2 As the economic and commercial benefits of global corporate

brands become more apparent, questions about the nature of corpo-
rate brand management have intensified.
Of course, the formative literature on the domain advanced the
view that a strong corporate brand is a strategic issue and is a senior
management concern (Balmer, 1995, 2001a, 2012a). At the same time,

the literature also acknowledges the role of the employee in corporate
brand management, delivery, and maintenance, therefore, concluding
that it is not only a marketing concern but of importance to strategists
and HR managers: a point made by Balmer in his early work (Balmer,
1995, 2001a). Also see Chapter 6. In short, the foundational litera-
ture has asserted that corporate brands are multidisciplinary in scope
(Balmer, 1995).
1.2.3 Co-creation: challenging corporate brand orthodoxy

Recent scholarship relating to brand co-creation, both internally and
externally, has in some quarters been gaining wide currency (Campbell
et al., 2014; Dean et al., 2016; Hatch & Schultz, 2010). The co-creation
perspective somewhat eschews the top-down, strategic approach, to
corporate brand management and argues that individuals and not
organisations and their managers “create brands.” For some, this per-
spective appears to challenge the role of senior management vis-à-vis
corporate brand management and seemingly, disregards the importance
of an entity’s corporate identity in corporate brand formation, mainte-
nance, and saliency.
From orthodox marketing and strategic perspectives, the notion that
senior managers should regard themselves as observers rather than
as initiators of the corporate brand covenant is likely, for some, to be
contentious. Although some will conclude that the co-creation perspec-
tive needs to be taken into account by senior managers, the related issue
of corporate governance may lead them to conclude that senior manag-
ers have no option other than to be prominent players in managing and
maintaining the saliency of their firm’s corporate brand. The arguments
of Iglesias, Ind, and Alfaro in Chapter 9 may help the reader to co-create
their own position.
What is clear to us is the question of the degree of involvement
of stakeholders in the co-creation and development of a corporate
brand remains open and inchoate – but may well be an important
development.
1.2.4 Corporate brand management: challenged by many tasks

Indeed in our view Corporate Brand Management is challenged by
many management tasks, which to highlight a few include: its con-
tribution to stakeholder management; its relationship to corporate
identity and values; its role in positioning; its relevance for corporate
reputation including corporate responsibility; its constitution related to
mission and vision of the company; its visibility in the corporate brand
architecture and definition of roles of different brands; its economic

potential in mergers and acquisitions and its role in the post-merger
integration process; its contribution to employer brand positioning; its
relevance to attract new employees and engage the workforce; its role
for word of mouth and customer promotion; its contribution to corpo-
rate communications and investor relations; its inspiration for steering
the customer experience; its integrative force over all touchpoints; its
ability to create brand alliances; and last but not least performance and
measurement. The collection which follows in this book might help us
to start to see through the fog (Balmer, 2001b).
1.2.5 Brand orientation approaches

The first access to orientate us in this fog might give a structure to different
paths of research within our discipline. This orientation provides to the
readers the symptomatic schools of thought, which are philosophical, stra-
tegic, marketing, behavioural, performance, omni brands, hybrid, cultural
and finally corporate brand schools (Balmer, 2013; also see Chapter 10).
These schools of thought deliver different frameworks and access to the
topic of corporate brand management. And at the same time, they serve as
source for future research. Research work has not finished in any of these
schools, hence new questions in the field of corporate brand management
could be related to one of these schools in almost all cases.
1.2.6 Addressing pressing issues apropos corporate

brand management
The good news is that based on prior research we can at least propose
answers to some issues on corporate brand management. For exam-
ple, there are solutions to increase stakeholder involvement and how
corporate brand management is able to contribute to it (see Chapter 8).
Relations and interactions to specific stakeholder groups, such as
employees, can be emphasised and targeted (see Chapter 6). Even cor-
porate brand management itself can be managed as its own business
model (see Chapter 4). In many cases the corporate brand management
is the driving force behind the development of a definite customer
experience throughout all customer touchpoints (see Chapter 7).
To summarise the achievements of more than 20 years of research and
practice so far, we can say that the global community of researchers
and practitioners working in the field of corporate brand management,
is now able to build on a stable of fundamental publications via the JBM
and elsewhere as partially delineated in this chapter. In the next section
we move to an outlook on future research avenues and areas.
1.3 Future directions of research in corporate

brand management
It is not our intention in this chapter to attempt to summarise all pub-
lished articles in the domain. Instead we here derive several implica-
tions for future research to further investigate the debate on corporate
brand management.
So far we have determined that research on corporate brand manage-
ment has gained a lot of attention over the past two decades and some
future research directions have already been identified. Especially within
the last five years, several articles have debated further research impli-
cations for corporate brand management (e.g., Abratt & Kleyn, 2012;
Fetscherin & Usunier, 2012; Melewar et al., 2012). For example, Melewar
et al. (2012) highlighted three fundamental tensions that include nor-
mative versus social constructionist approaches, organisational versus
individual level research, and static versus dynamic perspectives.
We believe that various research directions show promising avenues
in the field that may contribute to a deeper understanding. We are also
convinced that in order to understand, study, and manage corporate
brands there is a need to take a broad, holistic, and boundary-spanning
view. Hence in the following text, we offer some additional research
topics pertaining to corporate brand management which we think are
important avenues for further research.
Holistic perspective of corporate brand management. There is little agree-

ment in the literature of what a corporate brand constitutes. Research
on corporate brand management suffers from highly fragmented per-
spectives (Abratt & Kleyn, 2012; Biraghi & Gambetti, 2015). Gyrd-Jones
et al. (2013) argue that the complexity in corporate brand management
especially results from its multidisciplinary roots, its broad scope, and
the need to address multiple stakeholders.
Multidisciplinary roots. Corporate brand management as a field has its

roots with notable contributions from the areas of marketing and brand
management, strategy, organisational studies, corporate communica-
tion, human resource management, and public relations (Balmer, 1995,
2001a; Balmer & Greyser, 2006; Gyrd-Jones et al., 2013). The integration
of perspectives and theories from these various research areas might
help to enhance our understanding in the field. Converging multidisci-
plinary perspectives not only improves theory building but would also
enhance the managerial impact of concepts for management (see also
Kernstock and Brexendorf, 2009). Further research needs to integrate
and link insights from these various areas.
Multiple stakeholders and perspectives. Corporate brand management includes

considering all stakeholders of the corporation (Balmer, 1995, 2001a).
Corporate brand management balances the relationship to stakehold-
ers like shareholders and employees with the relationship to customers
(Brexendorf and Kernstock, 2007). A corporate brand evokes for products
or services which are endorsed or marketed with the corporate brand. As
such, corporate brands can be perceived and interpreted from a variety of
perspectives. We argue that further progress in corporate brand manage-
ment research should therefore be driven by several perspectives: how
different are the perspectives of internal and external stakeholders to the
corporate brand? How do stakeholders perceive the corporate brand when
they are part of different stakeholder groups (e.g., employee and customer,
employee and shareholder, etc.)? Considering the diversity of these various
stakeholder groups: Is building and sustaining a coherent corporate brand possible?
Managing from a co-creation perspective. In addition, and to revisit an ear-

lier and perhaps contentious issue, discussions about brand co-creation
(e.g., Brexendorf, Kernstock and Powell, 2014; Hatch & Schultz, 2010;
Iglesias et al., 2013) add a further dimension. Also, Bickerton (2000)
for example has discussed and proposed an initial framework com-
bining a “top-down” organisational perspective versus a “bottom-up”
customer market perspective for corporate branding. In summary, the
question if a corporation should let stakeholders participate (and to
what extend) in the creation and development of a corporate brand,
currently remains open. There is little information about how manage-
ment should handle the challenge of “open” brand management. Some
groups of stakeholders might be interested in getting involved in creat-
ing the corporate brand where others are not interested. And if integrat-
ing stakeholders, which are the most important stakeholders? How far
should they be integrated into the corporate brand development? Does
open brand management require more leadership or will leadership be
substituted by participation? Major global corporate brands have liter-
ally millions of stakeholders and there are likely to be a bewildering
variety of corporate images held amongst stakeholders. How are these
multiple co-creation perspectives to be accommodated and managed?
What are the implications for corporate brand communications? What
are the implications for other tasks of management? The co-creation
perspective is just one of many interesting debates within the corporate
brand management domain at present and in this collection.
The role of leadership in corporate brand management. As the emphasis

on and the attendant economic benefits of corporate brands increase,
decisions about their management become of paramount importance,

raising also the question of leadership in brand management. A strong
corporate brand needs the involvement of the top management team as it
requires the engagement of all employees. The corporate brand might help
to align employees and organisational subcultures across functional and
geographic boundaries. In our view further research in corporate brand
management also needs to focus on the role of the top management in
building and sustaining the corporate brand – internally and externally.
Other questions like how a corporate brand can be created and managed
most efficiently and successfully are important (Balmer et al., 2013).
The role of the corporate brand within the product brand portfolio. Brand
growth on all levels requires a well-thought-out brand architecture in
which every brand has a defined role and fits with goals of all other
brands in the entire brand portfolio. Building and managing corporate
brands need to consider the firms’ brand architecture. Furthermore,
strong corporate brands have an impact on extension of product brands
(Brown & Dacin, 1997; Brexendorf & Keller, 2016; Keller & Aaker, 1998).
The corporate brand takes in an embracing role, gives direction to the
products, and underlines the synergy and clarity of the whole brand port-
folio (Brexendorf & Keller, 2016). Firms need to manage the association
transfer and potential trade-offs between the corporate brand (corporate-
level) and their products and services brands (market- and product-level).
In line with this increased importance, many multi-national cor-
porations like Unilever or Procter & Gamble have pruned their prod-
uct brand portfolios in favour of supporting their corporate brands.
Although managers have recognised that the corporate brand repre-
sents the products/services of the organisation and can been seen as
a symbolic umbrella that enhances synergy and clarity of the product
and services brand portfolio, the intertwined relationship between the
corporate level and the product/service level of brands needs further
conceptual and empirical investigation.
The relevance and impact of corporate social responsibility and/or ethical fit.
Another useful line of enquiry would be in relation to corporate social
responsibility and corporate brand management. In addition, further
research is warranted on whether various levels of alignment (or fit)
between individual ethical orientations of employees and organisa-
tional climates generate positive or negative attitudes and behaviours, in
relation to ethical corporate identity, ethical corporate marketing, and
the corporate brand. For example some prior research exists that may
be built upon within industries particularly vulnerable to reputational
issues or crisis, such as the finance industry, especially since the global
financial crises, or oil industries due to concerns for environmental and
community impacts (e.g. see Balmer 2010b; Balmer et al., 2011; Powell
et al., 2009, 2013; Powell, 2011; Vallaster et al., 2012).
The need for more empirical research on corporate brand management. Research
on corporate brand management is primarily focused on conceptual
articles on the topic. Some empirical research does exist for example
case based research within creative industries as well as the finance and
oil industries (Powell, 2007; Powell et al., 2009, 2013). Balmer and Liao
(2007) have also undertaken exploratory case study research within higher
education to investigate student corporate brand identification towards
three closely-linked corporate brands: a UK university, a leading UK busi-
ness school and an overseas collaborative partner institute in Asia. More
recently the perceptions of South African supplier – buyer relations and
its effect on the corporate brand are delineated via case study research by
Flax et al. (2016), as well as how corporate brands act as catalysts in times
of change in a South African bank (McCoy & Venter, 2016). Additionally,
Balmer and Wang (2016) have investigated senior business school manag-
ers’ cognitions of corporate brand building and management within top
Financial Times (FT)-ranked British business schools.
Other empirical studies exist in corporate brand management but in
our view they remain relatively scarce in the corporate brand manage-
ment canon. No matter if considering the companies’ perspective of
managing a corporate brand or the stakeholder perspective (including
employees) on how they perceive or interrelate to the corporate brand,
relatively little empirical research has been undertaken overall. To pro-
gress research on corporate brand management, we agree that further
investigation via empirical studies is deemed necessary (Pillai, 2012).
Mukherjee & Balmer (2007) have noted how, given the strategic impor-
tance of corporate brand, the theoretical foundations of the territory are
underdeveloped. Melewar, Gotsi, & Andriopolous (2012) also usefully
call for a further investigation of longitudinal studies in the field. We
also see the necessity for further research in cross-industry studies.
1.4 Further reading
An important stakeholder is the consumer or customer. Not very few

might consider the customer as primus inter pares among all stakehold-
ers. De la Paz Toldos-Romero & Orozco-Gómez (2013) analysed the
effects of brand personality dimensions on purchase intention. If the
consumer is a frequent user of a brand, they will rate the value and
personality of a brand higher than a non-user. Purchase intention of a

consumer is positively influenced by the hipness, success, sincerity, and
sophistication of a brand personality, whereas domesticity, emotional-
ity, and professionalism influence purchase intention in a negative way.
Therefore, it is important to adapt business models continuously to
changing conditions of the market to maintain hipness, hence success.
Not only the above-mentioned indicators but also the brand name is
decisive for the purchase intention.
Nhat Hanh Le et al. (2014) explain the importance of brand name
attitude compared to product expertise when observing changes of con-
sumer brand preferences in the context of corporate rebranding. The
research contributes significantly to the contemporary literature on cor-
porate rebranding. The comprehension of the applications of two types
of rebranding strategies either with minor or radical changes in terms
of corporate brand positions and marketing aesthetics is very useful
for a firm to continuously survive and remain desirable in a long run.
Considering a repositioning, the results indicate the following: given a
pleasant original brand name attitude, it is favourable to use the initial
brand. On the other hand, given a less pleasant attitude towards the
original brand name, it is preferable to perform a rebrand repositioning.
Next to the brand name, the brand image is another decisive key fac-
tor following An Tran et al. (2015). Nowadays consumers are careful to
invest their hard-earned money and demand more transparency and
honesty. To develop their perceptions stakeholders rely on the key role of
corporate image. An Tran et al. (2015) define corporate image as follows.
Corporate communication and corporate personality consist of seven
dimensions: visual expression, positive feelings, environments expres-
sion, online appearance, staff/employees appearance, attitude/behaviour,
and external communications. These seven dimensions lead to corporate
image and highlight its importance. This forms a conceptual model,
which highlights how corporate image is defined in peoples’ minds and
includes five levels: awareness, familiarity, favourability, trust, and advo-
cacy. Furthermore, An Tran et al. (2015) uncover the importance of pri-
oritising specific dimensions and that online appearance has increased in
importance, as well as the importance of the consistency of employees’
appearance and attitude, as they represent what the company stands for.
1.5 Introduction for remaining chapters
In Chapter 2 John M.T. Balmer reflects on his foundational article of

1995 where he formally introduced the corporate brand notion entitled
‘Corporate Branding and Connoisseurship’. In this historiography of
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“No. Nor do I care for wit in ladies. Your sister has been everything that
is perfect—sympathetic, an interested listener, one who shares one’s
opinions completely, and who never says a word more than is absolutely
necessary; but thank goodness I have not yet observed her descend to the
unwomanliness of wit.”
Mrs. Menzies-Legh looked at me as though I were being funny. It was a
way she had, and one which I particularly disliked; for surely few things are
more offensive than to be treated as amusing when you are not. “Evidently,”
said she, “you have a soothing and restraining influence over Betti, dear
Baron. Has she, then, never made you laugh?”
“Certainly not,” said I with conviction.
“But look at Mr. Jellaby—do you see how he is laughing?”
“At his own dull jokes, I should say,” I said, bestowing a momentary
glance on the slouching figure in front. His face was turned toward Frau von
Eckthum, and he was certainly laughing, and to an unbecoming extent.
“Oh, not a bit. He is laughing at Betti.”
“I have heard your sister,” said I emphatically, “talking in general
company—such company, that is, as this tour affords—and she has done it
invariably seriously, and rather poetically, but never has more than smiled
herself, and never raised that doubtful tribute, a laugh.”
“That,” said Mrs. Menzies-Legh, “was because you were there, dear
Baron. I tell you, you soothe and restrain.”
I bowed. “I am glad,” I said, “that I exert a good influence over the
party.”
“Oh, very,” said she, her eyelashes cast down. “But what does Betti talk
to you about, then? The scenery?”
“Your tactful sister, my dear lady, does not talk at all. Or rather, what she
says consists entirely of one word, spoken indeed with so great a variety of
expression that it expands into volumes. It is that that I admire so profoundly
in her. If all ladies would take a lesson——”
“But—what word?” interrupted Mrs. Menzies-Legh, who had been
listening with a growing astonishment on her face—astonishment, I suppose,
that so near a relative should be also a person of tact and delicacy.
“Your sister simply says Oh. It sounds a small thing, and slightly bald
stated in this manner, yet all I can say is that if every woman——”
Mrs. Menzies-Legh, however, made a little exclamation and bent down
hastily.
“Dear Baron,” she said, “I’ve got a thorn or something in my shoe. I’ll
wait for our caravan to come up, and get in and take it out. Auf
Wiedersehen.”
And she fell behind.
This was the first really agreeable conversation I had had with Mrs.
Menzies-Legh. I walked on alone for some miles, turning it over with
pleasure. It was of course pleasant to reflect that I alone of the party had a
beneficial influence over her whom her sister was entitled to describe as
Betti; and it was also pleasant (though only what was to be expected) that I
should exercise a good influence over the entire party. “Soothing” was Mrs.
Menzies-Legh’s word. Well, what was happening was that these English
people were being leavened hourly and ceaselessly with German yeast; and
now that it had been put into so many words I did see that I soothed them,
for I had observed that whenever I approached a knot of them, however
loudly it had been laughing and talking it sank into a sudden calm—it was
soothed, in fact—and presently dispersed about its various duties.
But nothing occurred after this that day that was pleasant. I plodded along
alone. Rain came down and mud increased, but still I plodded. It was
pretended to me that we were unusually unlucky in the weather and that
England does not as a rule have a summer of the sort; I, however, believe
that it does, regularly every year, as a special punishment of Providence for
its being there at all, or how should the thing be so very green? Mud and
greenness, mud and greenness, that is all the place is made of, thought I,
trudging between the wet hedges after an hour’s rain had set everything
dripping.
Stolidly I followed, at my horse’s side, whither the others led. In the rain
we passed through villages which the ladies in every tone of childish
enthusiasm cried out were delightful, Edelgard joining in, Edelgard indeed
loudest, Edelgard in fact falling in love in the silliest way with every
thatched and badly repaired cottage that happened to have a show of flowers
in its garden, and saying—I heard her with my own ears—that she would
like to live in one. What new affectation was this, I asked myself? Not one
of our friends who would not (very properly) leave off visiting us if we
looked as poor as thatch. To get and to keep friends the very least that you
must have is a handsome sofa-set in a suitably sized drawing-room. Edelgard
till then had been justly proud of hers, which cost a sum so round that it
seems written in velvet letters all over it. It is made of the best of everything
—wood, stuffing, covers, and springs, and has a really beautiful walnut-
wood table in the middle, with its carved and shapely legs resting on a
square of carpet so good that many a guest has exclaimed in tones of envy as
her feet sank into it, “But dearest Baroness, where and how did you secure
so truly glorious a carpet? It must have cost——!” And eyes and hands
uplifted complete the sentence.
To think of Edelgard with this set and all that it implies in the background
of her consciousness affecting a willingness to leave it, tried my patience a
good deal; and about three o’clock, having all collected in a baker’s shop in
a wet village called Salehurst for the purpose of eating buns (no camp being
in immediate prospect), I told her in a low tone how ill enthusiasms about
things like thatch sit on a woman who is going to be thirty next birthday.
“Dear wife,” I begged, “do endeavour not to be so calf-like. If you think
these pretences pretty let me tell you you are mistaken. The others will not
tell you so, because the others are not your husband. Nobody is taken in,
nobody believes you. Everybody sees you are old enough to be sensible.
But, not being your husband, they are obliged to be polite and feign to agree
and sympathize, while they are really secretly lamenting your inability to
adjust your conversation to your age.”
This I said between two buns; and would have said more had not the
eternal Jellaby thrust himself between us. Jellaby was always coming
between man and wife, and this time he did it with a glass of fizzy
lemonade. Edelgard refused it, and Jellaby (pert Socialist) thanked her
earnestly for doing so, saying he would be wholly unable to respect a woman
who drank fizzy lemonade.
Respect a woman? What a tone to adopt to a married lady whose husband
is within ear-shot. And what could Edelgard’s tone have been to him before
such a one on his side came within the range of the possible?
“And I must warn you,” I continued with a slightly less pronounced
patience, “very seriously against the consequences likely to accrue if you
allow a person of Jellaby’s sex and standing to treat you with familiarity.
Familiarity and disrespect are one and the same thing. They are inseparable.
They are, in fact, twins. But not ordinary twins—rather that undividable sort
of which there have been luckily only a few examples——”
“Dear Otto, do have another bun,” said she, pointing to these articles in a
pile on the counter; and as I paused to choose (by means of squeezing) the
freshest, she, although aware I had not finished speaking, slipped away.
I begin to doubt as I proceed with my narrative whether any but relations
had better be admitted to the readings aloud after all. Friends have certain
Judas-like qualities, and might, perhaps, having listened to these sketches of
Edelgard with every appearance of sympathy, go away and misrepresent me.
Relations on the other hand are very sincere and never pretend (which is
why one prefers friends, I sometimes think) and they have, besides, the
family feeling which prevents their discussing each other to the unrelated. It
is possible that I may restrict my invitations solely to them; and yet it seems
a pity not to let my friends in as well. Have they not often suffered in the
same way too? Have they not wives themselves? God help us all.
Continuing our march in the rain we left Salehurst (where I earnestly but
vainly suggested we should camp in the back-yard of the inn) and went
toward Bodiam—a ruined castle, explained Lord Sigismund coming and
walking with me, of great interest and antiquity, rising out of a moat which
at that time of the year would be filled with white and yellow water-lilies.
He knew it well and talked a good deal about it, its position, its
preservation, and especially its lilies. But I was much too wet to care about
lilies. A tight roof and a shut window would have interested me far more.
However, it was agreeable to converse with him, and I soon deftly turned the
conversation while at the same time linking it, as it were, on to the next
subject, by remarking that his serene Aunt in Germany must also be very
old. He vaguely said she was, and showed a tendency to get back to the ruins
nearer at hand, which I dodged by observing that she must make a perfect
picture in her castle in Thuringia, the background being so harmonious, such
an appropriate setting for an old lady, for, as is well known, the castle
grounds contain the most magnificent ruins in Europe. “And your august
Aunt, my dear Lord Sigismund,” I continued, “is, I am certain, not one whit
less magnificent than the rest.”
“Well, I don’t think Aunt Lizzie actually crumbles yet, you know, Baron,”
said Lord Sigismund smiling. “You should see her going about in gaiters
looking after things.”
“There is nothing I would like better than to see her,” I replied with
enthusiasm, for this was surely almost an invitation.
He, however, made no direct answer but got back to the Bodiam ruins
again, and again I broke the thread of what threatened to become a narrative
by inquiring how long it took to go by train from London to his father the
Duke’s place in Cornwall.
“Oh, it’s at the end of the world,” said he.
“I know, I know. But my wife and I would not like to leave England
without having journeyed thither and looked at a place so famous according
to Baedeker both for its size, its splendour, and its associations. Of course,
my dear Lord Sigismund,” I added with the utmost courtesy, “we expect
nothing. We would be content to go as the merest tourists. In spite of the
length of the journey we should not hesitate to put up at the inn which is no
doubt not far from the ducal gates. There should be no trading on what has
become, certainly on my side and I hope and believe on yours, a warm
friendship.”
“My dear Baron,” said Lord Sigismund heartily, “I agree entirely with
you. Friendship should be as warm as one can possibly make it. Which
reminds me that I haven’t asked poor Menzies-Legh how his foot is getting
on. That wasn’t very warm of me, was it? I must go and see how he is.”
And he dropped behind.
At this time I was leading the procession (by some accident of the start
from the bun shop) and had general orders to go straight ahead unless
signalled to from the rear. I went, accordingly, straight ahead down a road
running along a high ridge, the blank space of rain and mist on either side
filled in no doubt on more propitious days by a good view. Bodiam lay
below somewhere in the flat, and we were going there; for Mrs. Menzies-
Legh, and indeed all the others including Edelgard, wished (or pretended to
wish) to see the ruins. I must decline to believe in the genuineness of such a
wish when expressed, as in this case, by the hungry and the wet. Ruins are
very well, no doubt, but they do come last. A man will not look at a ruin if
he is honest until every other instinct, even the smallest, has been satisfied.
If, not having had his dinner, he yet expresses eagerness to visit such things,
then I say that that man is a hypocrite. To enjoy looking at the roofless must
you not first have a roof yourself? To enjoy looking at the empty must you
not first be filled? For the roofless and the empty to visit and admire other
roofless and other empties seems to me as barren as for ghosts to go to tea
with ghosts.
Alone I trudged through a dripping world. My thoughts from ruins and
ghosts strayed naturally—for when you are seventy there must be a good
deal of the ghost about you—once more to Lord Sigismund’s august and
aged Aunt in Thuringia, to the almost invitation (certainly encouragement)
he had given me to go and behold her in princely gaiters, to the many
distinct advantages of having such a lady on our visiting list, to conjecture as
to the extent of the Duke her brother’s hospitality should we go down and
take up our abode very openly at the inn at his gates, to the pleasantness
(apart from every other consideration) of staying in his castle after staying in
a caravan, and to the interest of Storchwerder when it heard of it.
The hooting of a yet invisible motor interrupted these musings. It was
hidden in the mist at first, but immediately loomed into view, coming down
the straight road toward me at a terrific pace, coming along with a rush and a
roar, the biggest, swiftest, and most obviously expensive example I had yet
seen.
The road was wide, but sloped away considerably on either side from the
crown of it, and on the crown of it I walked with my caravan. It was a clay
road, made slippery by the rain; did these insolent vulgarians, I asked
myself, suppose I was going to slide down one side in order to make room
for them? Room there was plenty between me in the middle and the gutter
and hedge at the sides. If there was to be sliding, why should it not be they
who slid?
The motor, with the effrontery usual to its class, was right on the top of
the road, in the very pick and middle of it. I perceived that here was my
chance. No motor would dare dash straight on in the face of so slow and
bulky an obstacle as a caravan, and I was sick of them—sick of their dust,
their smell, and their vulgar ostentation. Also I felt that all the other
members of our party would be on my side, for I have related their indignant
comments on the slaying of a pretty young woman by one of these goggled
demons. Therefore I kept on immovably, swerving not an inch from the top
of the road.
The motor, seeing this and now very near, shrieked with childish rage (it
had a voice like an angry woman) at my daring to thwart it. I remained
firmly on my course, though I was obliged to push up the horse which
actually tried of itself to make way. The motor, still shrieking, saw nothing
for it but to abandon the heights to me, and endeavoured to pass on the
slope. As it did it skidded violently, and after a short interval of upheaval and
activity among its occupants subsided into calm and the gutter.
An old gentleman with a very red face struggled into view from among
many wrappers.
I waited till he had finally emerged, and then addressed him impressively
and distinctly from the top of the road. “Road hog,” I said, “let this be a
lesson to you.”
I would have said more, he being unable to get away and I holding, so to
speak, the key to the situation, if the officious Jellaby and the too kind Lord
Sigismund had not come running up from behind breathlessly eager to
render an assistance that was obviously not required.
The old gentleman, shaking himself free from his cloak and rising in the
car, was in the act of addressing me in his turn, for his eyes were fixed on me
and his mouth was opening and shutting in the spasms preliminary to heated
conversation (all of which I observed calmly, leaning against my horse’s
shaft and feeling myself to be in the right) when Lord Sigismund and Jellaby
arrived.
The old gentleman was in the act of addressing me in his turn
“I do hope you’ve not been hurt——” began Lord Sigismund with his
usual concern for those to whom anything had happened.
The old gentleman gasped. “What? Sidge? It’s your lot?” he exclaimed.
“Hullo, Dad!” was Lord Sigismund’s immediate and astonished response.
It was the Duke.
Now was not that very unfortunate?
CHAPTER XV
I HAVE observed on frequent occasions in a life now long enough to have

afforded many, a tendency on the part of Providence to punish the just man
because he has been just. Not one to criticize Providence if I can avoid it, I
do feel that this is to be deplored. It is also inexplicable. Marie-Luise died, I
recollect, the very day I had had occasion to speak sharply to her, which
almost looked, I remember thinking at the time, like malice. I was aware,
however, that it was only Providence. My poor wife was being wielded as
the instrument which was to put me in the wrong, and I need not say to you,
my friends, who knew her and know me and were witness of the harmony of
our married life, that her death had nothing to do with my rebukes. You all
remember she was in perfect health that day, and was snatched from my side
late in the afternoon by means of a passing droschke. The droschke passed
over her, and left me, with incredible suddenness, a widower on the
pavement. This might have happened to anybody, but what was so peculiarly
unfortunate was that I had been forced, if I would do my duty, to rebuke her
during the hours immediately preceding the occurrence. Of course, I could
not know about the droschke. I could not know about it; I did my duty; and
by the evening I was the most crushed of men, a prey to the crudest regrets
and self-reproaches. Yet had I not acted aright? Conscience told me Yes.
Alas, how little could Conscience do for my comfort then! In time I got over
it, and regained the calm balance of mind that saw life would stand still if we
feared to speak out because people might die. Indeed, I saw this so clearly
that I not only married again within the year, but made up my mind that no
past experience should intimidate me into not doing my duty by my second
wife; I assumed, that is, from the first my proper position in the household as
its guide and censor, and up to now I am glad to say Providence has left
Edelgard alone, and has not used her (except in minor matters) as a weapon
for making me regret I have done right.
But here, now, was this business with the Duke. Nothing could have been
warmer and more cordial than my feelings toward him and his family. I
admired and liked his son; I infinitely respected his sister; and I only asked
to be allowed to admire, like, and respect himself. Such was my attitude
toward him. Toward motors it was equally irreproachable. I detested their
barbarous methods, and was as anxious as any other decent man to give
them a lesson and help avenge their many unhappy victims. Now came
Providence, stepping in between these two meritorious intentions, and
frustrating both at one blow by the simple expedient of combining the Duke
with the motor. It confounded me; it punished me; it put me in the wrong;
and for what? For doing what I knew was right.
“No one, not even a pastor, can expect me to like that sort of thing,” I
complained to Mrs. Menzies-Legh, to whom I had been talking, owing to her
sister’s being somewhere else.
“No,” said she; and looked at me reflectively as though tempted to say
more. But (no doubt remembering my dislike of talkative women) she
refrained.
I was sitting under one of the ruined arches of Bodiam Castle (never, my
friends, go there; it is a terribly damp place), with the lean lady, while the
others peered about as well as they could, being too tired to do anything but
sit, and weary, too, of spirit, for I am a sensitive man, and had had a troubled
day. The evening had done that which English people call drawing in. Lord
Sigismund was gone—gone with his unreasonably incensed father in the
motor to some place whose name I did not catch, and was not to be back till
the next day. The others, including myself, had, after a prolonged search,
found a very miserable camp with cows in it. It was too late to object to
anything, so there we huddled round our stew-pot in an exposed field, while
the wind howled and a fine rain fell. Our party was oddly silent and
cheerless considering its ordinary spirits. No one said it was healthy and
jolly; even the children did not speak, and sat buttoned up in mackintoshes,
their hands clasped round their knees, their faces, shining with rain, set and
serious. I think the way the Duke had behaved after getting out of the gutter
had depressed them. It had been a disagreeable scene—I should say he was a
man of a hot and uncontrolled temper—and my apologies had been useless.
Then the supper took an unconscionable time preparing. For some reason the
chickens would not boil (they missed Lord Sigismund’s persuasive talent)
and the potatoes could not because the stove on which they stood went out
and nobody noticed it. How bleak and autumnal that field, bare of trees, with
the rain driving over it, looked after the unsatisfactory day I cannot describe
to you. Its dreariness, combined with what had gone before, and with the bad
supper, made me dislike it more than any camp we had had. The thought that
up there on those dank cow-ridden heights we were to spend the night, while
down in Bodiam lights twinkled and happy cottagers undressed in rooms and
went into normal beds instead of inserting themselves sideways into what
was in reality a shelf, was curiously depressing. And when, after supper, our
party was washing up by the flickering lantern-light, with the rain wetting
the plates as quickly as they were dried, I could not refrain from saying as I
stood looking down at them, “So this is what is called pleasure.”
Nobody had anything to say to that.
In self-defense we went down later on, dark and wild though it was, to
the ruins. Sit up there in the wet we could not, and it was too early to go to
bed. Nor could we play at cards in each other’s caravans, because of
questions of decorum. Mrs. Menzies-Legh did, indeed, suggest it, but on my
pointing this out to her with a severity I was prepared to increase if she had
made the least opposition, the suggestion was dropped. Forced to stay out-
of-doors we were forced to move, or rheumatism would certainly have
claimed us for its own, so we set out once again along the muddy lanes,
leaving Menzies-Legh (who was sulking terribly) to mind the camp, and
trudged the two miles down to the castle.
Mrs. Menzies-Legh walked with me. Directly she saw I was alone, the
others hurrying on ahead at a pace I did not care to keep up with, she loitered
behind till I overtook her and walked with me.
I have made no secret of the fact that this lady seemed to mark me during
the tour for her special prey. You, my hearers, must have noticed it by now,
for I conceal nothing. I can safely say I was not to blame, for in no way did I
encourage her. Not only must she have been over thirty, but more than once
she had allowed herself to do that which can only be described as poking fun
at me. Besides, I do not care for the type. I dislike the least suggestion of
wiriness in woman; and there was nothing of her bodily (except wire) and
far too much intellectually—I mean so far as a woman can be intellectual,
which, of course, is not far at all. I therefore feel entirely conscience-clear,
and carefully avoiding any comments which might give the impression of
vanity on my part, merely state the bare facts that the lady was constantly at
my elbow, that my elbow was reluctant, and that no other member of the
party clung to it like that.
There she sat with me, for instance, in the ruins, pretending she was tired
too, though of course she was not, for never was any one more active, and
for want of a better listener—Frau von Eckthum had from the first melted
away among the shadows—I was obliged to talk to her in the above strain.
However, one cannot really talk to such a woman, not really converse with
her. She soon reminded me of this fact (which I well knew) by inquiring
whether I did not think people were very apt to call that Providence which
was in reality nothing more nor less than their own selves—“Or,” she added
(profanely) “if they’re in another mood they call it the Devil, but it is always
just themselves.”
Well, I had not come through the mud to Bodiam to be profane, so I
gathered my wraps about me and prepared to go.
“But I do see your point,” she said, noticing these preparations, and
realizing, perhaps, that she had gone too far. “Things do sometimes happen
very unluckily, and punishments are out of all proportion to the offence. I
think, for instance, it was perfectly terrible for you that you should have
been scolding your wife——”
“Not scolding. Rebuking.”
“It’s the same thing——”
“Certainly not.”
“Rebuking her, then, up to the very moment—oh, it would have killed
me!”
And she shivered.
“My dear lady,” said I, slightly amused, “a man has certain duties, and he
performs them. Sometimes they are unpleasant, and he still performs them.
If he allowed himself to be killed each time there would be a mighty dearth
of husbands in the world, and what would you all do then?”
Women however have no sense of humour, and she was unable to catch at
this straw of it offered her for the purpose of lightening the conversation. On
the contrary, she turned her head and looking at me gravely (pretty eyes,
wasted) she said, “But how much better never, never to do your duty.”
“Really——” I protested.
“Yes. If it means being unkind.”
“Unkind? Is a mother unkind who rebukes her child?”
“Oh, call it by its proper name—scolding, preaching, advising, abusing—
it’s all unkind, wickedly unkind.”
“Abusing, my dear lady?”
“Come, now, Baron, what you said to the Duke——”
“Ah. That was an unfortunate accident. I did what under any other
circumstances would have been my duty, and Providence——”
“Oh, Baron dear, leave Providence alone. And leave your duty alone. A
tongue doing its duty is such a terrible instrument of destruction. Why, you
can almost see all the little Loves and Charities turning paler and paler and
weaker and weaker the longer it wags, and shrivelling up quite at last and
being snuffed out. Really I have been thankful on my knees every time I
have not said what I was going to say when I’ve been annoyed.”
“Indeed?” said I, ironically.
I might have added that no great strain could have been put upon her
knees, for I could conceive no woman less likely to be silent if she wanted to
speak. But, candidly, what did it matter? I have always found it quite
impossible to take a woman seriously, even when I am attracted; and heaven
knows I had no desire to sit on stones in that wet place while this one spread
out her little stock of ill-assimilated wisdom for my (presumable)
improvement.
I therefore began to button up my cloak with an unmistakable finality,
determined to seek the others and suggest a return to the camp.
“You forget,” I said, while I buttoned, “that an outburst of annoyance has
nothing whatever to do with the calm discharge of a reasonable man’s
obligations.”
“What, you’ve been quite calm and happy when you’ve been doing what
you call rebuke?” said she, looking up at me. “Oh, Baron.” And she shook
her head and smiled.
“Calm, I hope and believe, but not happy. Nor did I expect to be. Duty
has nothing to do with one’s happiness.”
“No, nor with the other one’s,” said she quickly.
Of course I could have scattered her reasoning to the winds if I had
chosen to bring real logic to bear on it, but it would have taken time, she
being very unconvinceable, and I really could not be bothered.
“Let Menzies-Legh convince her,” thought I, making myself ready for the
walk back in the rain, aware that I had quite enough to do convincing my
own wife.
“Try praising,” said Mrs. Menzies-Legh.
Not seeing the point, I buttoned in silence.
“Praising and encouraging. You’d be astonished at the results.”
In silence, for I would not be at the trouble of asking what it was I was to
praise and encourage, I turned up my collar and fastened the little strap
across the front. She, seeing I had no further intention of talking, began to
get ready too for the plunge out into the rain.
“You’re not angry, Baron dear?” she asked, leaning across and looking
into as much of my face as appeared above the collar.
This mode of addressing me was one that I had never in any way
encouraged, but no amount of stiffening at its use discouraged it. In justice, I
must remind you who have met her that her voice is not disagreeable. You
will remember it is low, and so far removed from shrillness that it lends a
spurious air to everything she says of being more worth listening to than it
is. Edelgard described it fancifully, but not altogether badly, as being full of
shadows. It vibrated, not unmusically, up and down among these shadows,
and when she asked me if I were angry it took on a very fair semblance of
sympathetic concern.
I, however, knew very well that the last thing she really was was
sympathetic—all the aptitude for sympathy the Flitz family had produced
was concentrated in her gentle sister—so I was in no way hoodwinked.
“My dear lady,” I said, shaking out the folds of my cloak, “I am not a
child.”
“Sometimes I think,” said she, getting up too, “that you are not enjoying
your holiday. That it’s not what you thought it would be. That perhaps we
are not a very—not a very congenial party.”
“You are very good,” said I, with a stiffness that relegated her at once to
an immense and proper distance away, for was not this a tending toward the
confidential? And a man has to be careful.
She looked at me a moment at this, her head a little on one side,
considering me. Her want of feminine reserve—conceive Edelgard staring at
a living gentleman with the frank attention one brings to bear on an
inanimate object—struck me afresh. She seemed absolutely without a
vestige of that consciousness of sex, of those arrière-pensées (as our
conquered but still intelligent neighbours say) very properly called female
modesty. A well brought up German lady soon casts down her eyes when
facing a gentleman. She at once recollects that she is a woman and he is a
man, and continues to recollect it during the whole time they are together. I
am sure in the days when Mrs. Menzies-Legh was yet a Flitz she did so, but
England had blunted if not completely destroyed those finer Prussian
feelings, and there she stood considering me with what I can only call a
perfectly sexless detachment. What, I wondered, was she going to say that
would annoy me at the end of it? But she said nothing; she just gave her
head a little shake, turned suddenly, and walked away.
Well, I was not going to walk too—at least, not with her. The ruins were
not my property, and she was not my guest, so I felt quite justified in letting
her go alone. Chivalry, too, has its limits, and one does not care to waste any
of one’s stock of it. No man can be more chivalrous than I if provided with a
proper object, but I do not consider that objects are proper once they have
reached an age to be able to take care of themselves, neither are they so if
Nature has encrusted them in an armour of unattractiveness; in this latter
case Nature herself may be said to be chivalrous to them, and they can safely
be left to her protection.
I therefore followed at my leisure in Mrs. Menzies-Legh’s wake, desiring
to return to the camp, but not desiring to do it with her. I thought I would
search for Frau von Eckthum and she and I would walk back happily
together; and, passing under the arch leading into what had been the
banqueting hall, I immediately found the object of my search beneath an
umbrella which was being held over her head by Jellaby.
When I was a child, and still in charge of my mother, she, doing her best
by me, used to say, “Otto, put yourself in his place,” if my judgments
chanced to be ill-considered or headlong.
I did so; it became a habit; and in consequence I arrived at conclusions I
would probably not otherwise have arrived at. So now, coming across my
gentle friend beneath Jellaby’s umbrella, I mechanically carried out my
mother’s injunction. At once I began to imagine what my feelings would be
in her place. How, I rapidly asked myself, would I enjoy such close
proximity to the boring Socialist, to the common man of the people if I were
a lady of exceptionally refined moral and physical texture, the fine flower
and latest blossom of an ancient, aristocratic, Conservative, and right-
thinking family? Why, it would be torture; and so was this that I had
providentially chanced upon torture.
“My dear friend,” I cried, darting forward, “what are you doing here in
the wet and darkness unprotected? Permit me to offer you my arm and
conduct you to your sister, who is, I believe, preparing to return to camp.
Allow me——”
And before Jellaby could frame a sentence I had drawn her hand through
my arm and was leading her carefully away.
He, I regret to say, quite unable (owing to his thick skin) to see when his
presence was not desired, came too, making clumsy attempts to hold his
umbrella over her and chiefly succeeding, awkward as he is, in jerking the
rain off its tips down my neck.
Well, I could not be rude to him before a lady and roundly tell him to take
himself off, but I do not think he enjoyed his walk. To begin with I suddenly
remembered that no members of our party, except Edelgard and myself,
possessed umbrellas, so that I was able to say with the mildness that is
sometimes so telling: “Jellaby, what umbrella is this?”
“The Baroness kindly lent it to me,” he replied.
“Oh, indeed. Community of goods, eh? And what is she doing herself
without one, may I inquire?”
“I took her home. She said she had some sewing to do. I think it was to
mend a garment of yours.”
“Very likely. Then, since it is my wife’s umbrella, and therefore mine, as
you will hardly deny, for if two persons become by the marriage law one
flesh they must equally become one everything else, and therefore also one
umbrella, may I request you instead of inserting it so persistently between
my collar and my neck to hand it over to me, and allow its lawful owner to
hold it for this lady?”
And I took it from him, and looked down at Frau von Eckthum and
laughed, for I knew she would be amused at Jellaby’s being treated as he
ought to be.
She, of my own nation and class, must often have been, I think,
scandalized at the way the English members of the party behaved to him,
absolutely as though he were one of themselves. Her fastidiousness must
often and often have been wounded by Jellaby’s appearance and manner of
speech, by his flannel collar, his untidy clothes, the wisp of hair forever
being brushed aside from his forehead only forever to fall across it again, his
slender, almost feminine frame, his round face, and the ridiculous whiteness
of his skin. Really, the only way to treat this person was as a kind of joke;
not to take him seriously, not to allow oneself to be, as one so often was on
the verge of being, angry with him. So I gave the hand resting on my arm a
slight pressure expressive of mutual understanding, and looked down at her
and laughed.
The dear lady was not, however, invariably quick of comprehension. As a
rule, yes; but once or twice she gave the last touch to her femininity by being
divinely stupid, and on this occasion, whether it was because her little feet
were wet and therefore cold, or she was not attending to the conversation, or
she had had such a dose of Jellaby that her brain refused any new
impression, she responded neither to my look nor to my laugh. Her eyes
were fixed on the ground, and the delicate and serious outline of her nose
was all that I was permitted to see.
Respecting her mood, as a tactful man naturally would, I did not again
directly appeal to her, but laid myself out to amuse her on the way up the hill
by talking to Jellaby in a strain of mock solemnity and endeavouring to draw
him out for her entertainment. Unfortunately he resisted my well-meant
efforts, and was more taciturn than I had yet seen him. He hardly spoke, and
she, I fear, was very tired, for only once did she say Oh. So that the
conversation ended by being a disquisition on Socialism held solely by
myself, listened to by Frau von Eckthum with absorbed and silent interest,
and by Jellaby with, I am sure, the greatest rage. Anyhow, I made some very
good points, and he did not venture a single protest. Probably his fallacious
theories had never had such a thorough pulling to pieces before, for there
were two miles to go up hill and I made the pace as slow as possible. My
hearers must also bear in mind that I exclusively employed that most deadly
weapon for withering purposes, the double-barrelled syringe of irony and
wit. Nothing can stand against the poison pumped out of these two, and I
could afford to bid Jellaby the cheeriest good night as I helped the tender
lady up the steps of her caravan.
He, it is amusing to relate, barely answered. But the moment he had gone
Frau von Eckthum found her tongue again, for on my telling her as she was
about to disappear through her doorway how greatly I had enjoyed being
able to be of some slight service to her, she paused with her hand on the
curtain and looking down at me, said: “What service?”
“Rescuing you from Jellaby,” said I.
“Oh,” said she; and drew back the curtain and went in.
CHAPTER XVI
T HERE is a place about six hours’ march from Bodiam called Frogs’ Hole
Farm, a deserted house lying low among hop-fields, a dank spot in a
hollow with the ground rising abruptly round it on every side, a place of
perpetual shade and astonishing solitude.
To this, led by the wayward Fate that had guided our vague movements
from the beginning, we steadily journeyed during the whole of the next day.
We were not, of course, aware of it—one never is, as no doubt my hearers
have noticed too—but that that was the ultimate object of every one of our
painful steps during an exceptionally long march, and that our little
arguments at crossroads and hesitations as to which we would take were
only the triflings of Fate, contemptuously willing to let us think we were
choosing, dawned upon us at four o’clock exactly, when we lumbered in
single file along a cart track at the edge of a hop-field and emerged one by
one into the back yard of Frogs’ Hole Farm.
The house stood (and very likely still does) on the other side of a
dilapidated fence, in a square of rank garden. A line of shabby firs with
many branches missing ran along the north side of it; a pond, green with
slime, occupied the middle of what was once its lawn; and the last tenant had
left in such an apparent hurry that he had not cleared up his packing
materials, and the path to the front door was still littered with the straw and
newspapers of his departure.
The house was square with many windows, so that in whatever corner we
camped we were subject to the glassy and empty stare of two rows of them.
Though it was only four o’clock when we arrived the sun was already
hidden behind the big trees that crowned the hill to the west, and the place
seemed to have settled down for the night. Ghostly? Very ghostly, my
friends; but then even a villa of the reddest and newest type if it is not lived
in is ghostly in the shiver of twilight; at least, that is what I heard Mrs.
Menzies-Legh say to Edelgard, who was standing near the broken fence
surveying the forlorn residence with obvious misgiving.
We had asked no one’s permission to camp there, not deeming it
necessary when we heard from a labourer on the turnpike road that down an
obscure lane and through a hop-field we would find all we required. Space
there was certainly of every kind: empty sheds, empty barns, empty oast-
houses, and, if we had chosen to open one of the rickety windows, an empty
house. Space there was in plenty; but an inhabited farm with milk and butter
in it would have been more convenient. Besides, there did undoubtedly lie—
as Mrs. Menzies-Legh said—a sort of shiver over the place, an ominously
complete silence and motionlessness of leaf and bough, and nowhere round
could I see either a roof or a chimney, no, not so much as a thread of smoke
issuing upward from between the hills to show me that we were not alone.
Well, I am not one to mind much if leaves do not move and a place is
silent. A man does not regard these matters in the way ladies do, but I must
say even I—and my friends will be able to measure from that the
uncanniness of our surroundings—even I remembered with a certain regret
that Lord Sigismund’s very savage and very watchful dog had gone with his
master and was therefore no longer with us. Nor had we even Jellaby’s,
which, inferior as it was, was yet a dog, no doubt with some amount of
practice in barking, for it was still at the veterinary surgeon’s, a gentleman
by now left far behind folded among the embosoming hills.
My hearers must be indulgent if my style from time to time is tinged with
poetic expressions such as this about the veterinary surgeon and the hills, for
they must not forget that the party I was with could hardly open any of its
mouths without using words plain men like myself do not as a rule even
recollect. It exuded poetry. Poetry rolled off it as naturally and as
continuously as water off a duck’s back. Mrs. Menzies-Legh was an especial
offender in this respect, but I have heard her gloomy husband, and Jellaby
too, run her very close. After a week of it I found myself rather inclined also
to talk of things like embosoming hills, and writing now about the caravan
tour I cannot always avoid falling into a strain so intimately, in my memory,
associated with it. They were a strange set of human beings gathered
together beneath those temporary and inadequate roofs. I hope my hearers
see them.
Our march that day had been more silent than usual, for the party was
greatly subject, as I was gradually discovering, to ups and downs in its
spirits, and I suppose the dreary influence of Bodiam together with the
defection of Lord Sigismund lay heavily upon them, for that day was
undoubtedly a day of downs. The weather was autumnal. It did not rain, but
sky and earth were equally leaden, and I only saw very occasional gleams of
sunshine reflected in the puddles on which my eyes were necessarily fixed if
I would successfully avoid them. At a place called Brede, a bleak hamlet
exposed on the top of a hill, we were to have met Lord Sigismund but
instead there was only an emissary from him with a letter for Mrs. Menzies-
Legh, which she read in silence, handed to her husband in silence, waited
while he read it in silence, and then without any comment gave the signal to
resume the march. How differently Germans would have behaved I need not
tell you, for news is a thing no German will omit to share with his
neighbours, discussing it thoroughly, lang und breit, from every possible and
impossible point of view, which is, I maintain, the human way, and the other
way is inhuman.
“Is not Lord Sigismund coming to-day?” I asked Mrs. Menzies-Legh the
first moment she came within earshot.
“I’m afraid not,” said she.
“To-morrow?”
“I’m afraid not.”
“What, not again at all?” I exclaimed, for this was indeed bad news.
“I’m afraid not.”
And, contrary to her practice she dropped behind.
“Why is not Lord Sigismund coming back?” I shouted to Menzies-Legh,
whose caravan was following mine, mine as usual being in the middle; and I
walked on backward through all the puddles so as to face him, being unable
to leave my horse.
“Eh?” said he.
How like an ill-conditioned carter he looked, trudging gloomily along, his
coat off, his battered hat pushed back from his sullen forehead! Another
week, I thought, and he would be perfectly indistinguishable from the worst
example of a real one.
“Why is not Lord Sigismund coming back?” I repeated, my hands up to
my mouth in order to carry my question right up to his heavy ears.
“He’s prevented.”
“Prevented?”
“Eh?”
“Prevented by what?”
“Eh?”
This was wilfulness: it must have been.

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Advances in Corporate Branding 1st

Edition John M. T. Balmer

Advances in Chinese Brand Management 1st Edition John

Corporate Accounting 2nd Edition M Hanif

Quantitative Corporate Finance John B. Guerard Jr.

Palgrave Advances in John Clare Studies 1st Edition

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Quantitative Corporate Finance 2nd Edition John B.

Patterns in the Machine A Software Engineering Guide to

jo ur nal of brand manag ement:

More information about this series at:

Tim Oliver Brexendorf

Joachim Kernstock Tim Oliver Brexendorf

Journal of Brand Management: Advanced Collections

1 Introduction: Current State and Future

9 The Organic View of the Brand: A Brand Value

The editors are appreciative of the research and scholarship of the

John M. T. Balmer is Professor of Corporate Marketing at Brunel

Shaun M. Powell is Senior Lecturer in Marketing in the Faculty of

Shaun has worked in the higher education sector in Australia, UK and

Joachim Kernstock is Head of the Center of Competence for Brand

Tim Oliver Brexendorf is Professor of Marketing and Director of the

(innovation) management – especially product lines product design,

2.1 A comparison between product and corporate brands 36

9.1 In-depth interview guide (subjects covered) 156

2.1 Balmer’s AC3ID Test of Corporate Brand ManagementTM 34

10.2 The quadripartite bases of corporate brand orientation:

1.1 Corporate brands in context

1.1.2 Why have corporate brands come of age?

organisational behaviour (and not marketing) in the early 2000s: see

1.1.3 When was the corporate brand notion formally

• corporate identity (an organisation’s distinctive and differentiating

• corporate brand management was multidisciplinary in scope; and

1.1.4 What is the corporate brand covenant?

1.1.5 Why are corporate brand and corporate identity

For instance, it is a corporate identity which informs a corporate

1.1.6 In what ways do corporate brand differ

• Whereas a brand manager has responsibility for a product brand, a

• Whereas a product brand can be formed over a short period (short

1.1.7 Taking account of a corporate marketing philosophy, what

strategy (ideal identity); corporate communications (communicated

1.1.8 What is corporate brand orientation and how

1.1.9 What are the imperatives of corporate brand management?

1. The corporate brand custodianship imperative: the CEO and senior

1.2 Current state of research in corporate

As this anthology partially documents, there has been an explosion of

1.2.1 Whilst the corporate branding literature is broad in scope it

1.2.2 As the economic and commercial benefits of global corporate

management concern (Balmer, 1995, 2001a, 2012a). At the same time,

1.2.3 Co-creation: challenging corporate brand orthodoxy

1.2.4 Corporate brand management: challenged by many tasks

architecture and definition of roles of different brands; its economic

1.2.5 Brand orientation approaches

1.2.6 Addressing pressing issues apropos corporate

1.3 Future directions of research in corporate

Holistic perspective of corporate brand management. There is little agree-

Multidisciplinary roots. Corporate brand management as a field has its

Multiple stakeholders and perspectives. Corporate brand management includes

Managing from a co-creation perspective. In addition, and to revisit an ear-

The role of leadership in corporate brand management. As the emphasis

decisions about their management become of paramount importance,

1.4 Further reading